Wednesday morning, I finished my comic, packed, and tried to leave for Ottawa. Further complicated by the fact that I had to stop at three stores and get my passport from my mom's van, which was not at home. I didn't actually get out of the city until 1:20.

I managed to arrive at Kelly's house in Ottawa at about 10:30 pm, or so. This was including about three quick stops (due to ever-increasing knee pain - one thing I hate about long trips) and a few longer ones, for things like food and gas. Generally, I made good time.

When I arrived, we loaded my stuff (few bags, 4 12-packs of Mountain Dew (as a gag gift to Josh - we refer to it as "the American Bounty" as Canadian Mountain Dew has no caffeine (???)), and a giant spoon (on special request from Kelly - once again, at customs, I listed the contents of my car (only mentioning that I had "some pop", not 47 cans of it (the 48th having fallen victim to a puncture wound during checkout - augh, what a mess)), not including the spoon (which was clearly visible) and the customs guard didn't ask about it.)) into Kelly's basement, after having some birthday cake (happy birthday, Kelly, and various other members of his family). Then we played some GTA:VC (new "game" my friends developed: waste (vehicularly - no personal murders permitted) as many pedestrians as possible before being killed or busted (the game tracks deaths automatically - quite useful)) and some Smash Bros (that was me and Patrick - Patrick's getting pretty good) before bed.

Thursday, we finally got out of bed at 1 or so (after a failed attempt to wake up at 10 to go find a McDonald's and consume McGriddles). After our various morning ablutions, we played more Smash Bros, then Josh showed up at Kelly's and we all went to get our tuxes. Met Josh's sister, Brooke, who has been incessantly bugging Patrick and I about being American and whether or not we owned guns, or failing that, anyone in our families. This continued when we went to Local Heroes, a sports restaurant/bar. She was amused (?) to hear Patrick's father owned a gun - she insisted that it was loaded and kept under her pillow. I mentioned I'd heard more about guns from her in a couple hours than I had in America in weeks.Anyway, Josh and I split a "Hungry Heifer" (I think) platter, being two pounds of honey-garlic ribs and two pounds of mild chicken wings. The ribs were excellent, and the wings not so much (though it's just my taste for that particular kind of sauce). Then, we all (the seven of us there (being me, Josh, Patrick, Kelly, Pete (Josh's best man), Brooke, and Natalie (I think), Brooke's friend), plus a bunch more of Josh's family) went to an Ottawa Renegades (local Canadian Football League team) game. It was an incredibly close game, but Ottawa managed to come from behind (after losing the lead) to win. (Apparently they're usually really bad, but they seemed to do well this time.)

Then we went to the casino. I'd never been to one before. On the recommendation of Josh, I went to the Royal Ascot game (horse racing game, made by Sega, oddly enough). I then developed a "system" (yes, I know any system is still a losing proposition) and proceeded to double the $5 I put into the machine, then lost a lot of that again. I came out ahead $2.25 on the night, which I then blew on slots. So I left the casino with the same amount of money that I had when I entered it.

Then we came back to Kelly's (because most of them had to work in the morning) and played some more Smash Bros, then went to sleep.

Today's the wedding rehearsal and dinner, and tomorrow's the actual thing. Fun times.

it Is Illegal to put cafeene in anything that is not brown in Canada-I shit you not!!!I wish someone had told me about the cafeene in the MD before I had 2xL refils at a Taco BEll in the States. I hear though that our Coke is better, a friend of mine alaways takes a case down south with him. Hey it is Red & white ;>